Desert Flower, Desert Cobra
by ScorchedRaven
Summary: In an alternate storyline of the Librarians third season, the Librarians enlist the help of an old, obscure friend of the Library to help them combat Apep. But this ambiguous stranger is more than she seems, and her secrets may bring Apep's wrath down on them all. Probably just a one-shot, but miracles do happen.


_**So, I wrote this several months ago and decided to post it just because. This is almost certainly not going to be a multi-chapter fic: its just the prologue to an alternate version of the third Librarians season that I came up with while watching it. I'm only putting it up because I think I did ok writing in the characters voices. I might write more someday, but probably not.**_

Abruptly, one of the file drawers by the stairs opened with a bang and a single tan rectangle zipped out to hit Flynn in the head.

"OW!" Flynn complained.

Baird leaned across the table. "Um… What is this, Jenkins?"

"No idea, Colonel," Jenkins said. "Must be something the Library wants us to look at."

"What's it say?" Ezekiel piped up from his seat on the wall.

"Um." Flynn picked it up and squinted. At first appearing to be blank, the tan card began to develop gracefully scrolling letters edged with gold until it was visibly a business card. Flynn began to read as the information appeared. Everyone crowded over to look. "Dr… Jeanette Naja… Egyptian historian and archeologist… Part-time snake enthusiast?... and old friend of the Library..." Flynn looked up with a perplexed expression.

" _NO!_ " The four Librarians and Guardian all turned to Jenkins in surprise, which was not lessened by finding him storming up the stairs and yelling at the ceiling, evidently speaking to the Library itself. "This is a terrible, _terrible_ idea! What are you _thinking_!"

"Ah… Jenkins?" Cassandra wrung her hands nervously.

"Unbe _liev_ able! Have you run _mad_?" Jenkins demanded of the ceiling. There was no response.

"Jenkins, are you alright?" Baird asked.

Jenkins turned around and started down the stairs with a disgusted snort. "This would never have happened when Juddson was around," he threw over his shoulder.

The business card ripped itself out of Flynn's hand and hit Jenkins on the temple.

Flynn straightened up and took two steps towards the stairs. "What exactly is so bad about… whoever this is?"

"She's arrogant, annoying, and extremely dangerous. And anyways the last time she had contact with the Library, she was in cohorts with the Serpent Brotherhood."

"Oh my." said Cassandra.

"But the card says she's a friend of the Library," Stone interjected. "So why would it send us the card unless we need her for something?"

Baird frowned. "What would we need her for?"

Jenkins sighed heavily. "Her personality aside… Dr. Naja knows more about Ancient Egypt and its magic than anyone else alive."

"Oh-kay." Ezekiel commented. "Then we probably need her help."

Stone grunted. "I'm with Jones. It can't hurt to have the best to help us. And besides, if she knows enough to combat Apep, I'll bet he's already trying to take her out."

Jenkins raised an eyebrow but said nothing as he handed the card back to Flynn. Flynn nodded and twirled it through his fingers. "Alright! We call Dr. Naja, and enlist her help to defeat Apep."

Baird handed him her phone. "It's a plan."

 _ ***w*w*w***_

Halfway around the world, archeologists worked unceasingly under the hot sun, looking remarkably similar to the slaves that had built the half-excavated temple. A little ways apart lay a tent in which water and electronic equipment were stored. Inside, a phone rang.

In the square of one of the excavation plots, a woman in a loose tan overshirt straightened up with a spine-stretching crackle. Handing off her tools to another worker, she climbed easily out and walked over to the tent, loosening the headscarf which covered mouth and nose. Her dark eyes narrowed as she picked up the ringing phone and held it to her ear.

"Ah… Hello?" asked a tentative male voice from the other end of the line.

"Ye-es?" the woman drawled, grinning.

"Alright… Hi, I'm trying to reach a Dr. Jeanette Naja?"

Her teeth flashed white as she chuckled. "I am she. How can I help you?"

Flynn glanced down at the card in his hand. "I was referred to you by a… trusted associate. Your card says you're an old friend of the Library."

The woman's expression sobered suddenly, but her eyes glinted with something that might just have been curiosity. "I am, indeed. Is this the Librarian speaking?"

"U-uh..." Flynn stuttered. "Yeah." There was another dry chuckle from the line.

"What can I do for you, Mr. Carson?"

Flynn took a deep breath. "We have a problem which relates to Egyptian magic. We'd like you to come and consult for us."

There was a moment of silence on the other line. "Alrighty then," she finally replied. "I can be ready in fifteen minutes. Any chance you can rig a portal for me to get there? Thebes is a very long way from the States."

"Sure." agreed Flynn. "I will ask Jenkins to ring up a door for you."

"Excellent." said the dark-haired woman, and ended the call. She sighed and turned to look out of the tent across the desert, watching the shadows cast by swirling sand. Her hand drifted absently up to touch the tattoo below her collarbone, half hidden by her tank top.

"Oh well. Hey Melanie! Can you manage the rest of the job by yourselves? I've got to go handle an emergency." And she jogged back out into the sunlight.

 _ ***w*w*w***_

It was actually closer to twenty minutes later that Jenkins opened the door to allow their visitor and a great volume of sand into the Library. Baird and the Librarians quickly glanced up to examine the Library's "expert".

Even as she walked in the door, Dr. Naja was pulling off the navy blue scarf around her mouth and nose. The revealed face was the extremely dark tan of a desert ethnicity, with sharp, attractive features and dark eyes framed by loosely braided black hair. She grinned back at them as they stared at her, straightening up and dropping the small knapsack slung over a shoulder. She was middling height, dressed in denim capris, a black tank top, and a loose tan overshirt, all of which were stained with sand. The black edge of a tattoo showed above the neckline of her tank top, and a worn wooden charm hung from a leather thong about her neck.

"Ah, if it isn't the noble knight of Camelot!" She turned with a grin to Jenkins, who gave her his most disapproving look. "It's been a long time, hasn't it, Jenkins? Not since the last Librarian, if memory serves."

Jenkins sighed. "It does."

"I thought it might," affirmed Naja with a nod and a smirk. "Perhaps you could introduce me to the current Librarian, as well?"

Baird (un)subtly shoved Flynn forwards. "Ah! Um. Yes." He managed, holding out a hand. "Flynn Carson."

An eyebrow went up. "Yes, I believe you are." she murmured, taking the offered hand. "I'm Jeanette Naja, but I haven't ever really gone by that, so for all intents and purposes my name is Jet."

Ezekiel snorted. "What, like Jet Blue Airlines?"

"Nah, more like Jet Black, as in the color."

"Oh."

Jet turned her gaze back to Flynn, and then over his shoulder to look at Baird. "Now you," she said, tilting her head to the side, "you have an air of command about you. The Guardian, if I'm not mistaken?" Baird nodded. "And that makes you Eve Baird."

She turned again, looking over the other three with thoughtful eyes. "There's only one female Librarian at the moment, so you must be Cassandra Killian. Stone is an Anglo-based name, so you fit the ethnicity, and by process of elimination that makes you Ezekiel Jones." She nodded, hands drifting to her hips. "Did I miss anybody?"

Baird blinked. "Uh, no, actually, you didn't."

"Excellent. Now, what exactly is so Egyptian that even the Librarians need consulting?"

Flynn opened his mouth, but Jenkins beat him to it, speaking from behind their visitor. "Apep has escaped," he said.

Jet's response was instant and terrible. All color leached out of her suddenly stiff face, and she reached up unconsciously to grasp the worn charm about her neck. " _Ra et Nekhbet,_ " she managed at last, "you _are_ in trouble."


End file.
